Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia Targets 100,000 Tonnes Compound Fertilizer in 2019

Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia (NCZ) is targeting to produce 100,000 metric tonnes of D Compound fertiliser in 2019.

The firm has also started negotiations with Government on a possible contract of fertiliser supply for the 2019-20 farming season under the subsidy programme, evoucher – farmer input support programme.

Zambia Daily Mail

Fecal Pellets As Fertilizer

“Decomposed excreta improves the soil structure, increases its water-holding capacity, reduces pests and diseases and neutralises soil toxins and heavy metals,” states the study done by Josiane Nikiema from the International Water Management Institute, Ghana.

However, there is a social barrier to using decomposed faecal matter.

In 2009, in Durban, South Africa, the eThekwini municipality developed the ‘LaDePa’ or Latrine Dehydration Pasteurisation machine to treat faecal sludge from the ‘Ventilated Improved Pit’ latrines. Here the sludge is extruded for the formation of pellets, which are then exposed to infrared radiation.

The final product is dried and pasteurised pellets that are safe to handle, with minimum exposure to pathogen risk. These are planned to be sold as an agricultural product.

According to a study, published in 2018 in South African Journal of Chemical Engineering, dried pellets can be reused in agriculture as organic fertiliser. The fertiliser has a high phosphorous content, which is essential for plant growth. The study notes that the pellets are also rich in carbon, which helps enrich the soil with organic matter.

Pelletisation of fertilisers also makes the process of application in the field very easy as the pellets are dust-free. The pellets release more nutrients to the soil in comparison to the traditional powdered fertilisers.

What’s stopping these pellets from becoming popular? It could be a problem of mentality...but the pellets have been “whitened” with additional colours to promote social acceptance.

Full article...

Uganda's Fertilizer Use Low At 2.5 kgs Per Hectare

“The low use of fertilisers must be rectified. In Uganda, we use an average of 2.5kgs per hectare. In the USA, they use 132kgs per hectare. The fertiliser projects at Osukuru Hills and Mwitanzigye (Lake Albert) must be expedited,” President Yoweri Museveni said in 2016.

However, for various reasons, a number of initiatives to increase the country's fertilizer manufacturing capacity and usage levels have faltered.

Uganda imported nearly 80,000 tonnes of fertilisers in 2018, up from 74,200 the year before and it is  expected to import nearly the same amount in 2019.

Full Article...

Oil rich Nigeria struggles to supply its farmers affordable fertiliser

Nigeria is one of the African countries that at State level would be expected to easily afford to avail its farmers affordable fertiliser, but that issue is a sore, perennially controversial one for the oil-rich nation.

The reasons for this are many and varied, and include the varying capacities and committments of the component state governments of Nigeria's federalised national governance structure.

Virtually every year there are widespread complaints of inefficiency or corruption in the administration of various fertiliser accessibility schemes.

In Adamawa State, farmers complain that promised subsidised fertiliser has not been forthcoming, well after the cropping season has started. “Lack of it at this critical time will surely affect our yield since we can’t afford to purchase directly from market where it goes for about Naira 8,000 per bag,’’ one farmer said.

(Insert: Naira 8,000 = U.S. $40 as at 06 August 2015)

An aide to the Adamawa State governor said that 30,000 tonnes of the still to be delivered fertiliser had been purchased.

Meanwhile in Bauchi State, the government has purchased 10,000 tonnes of fertiliser to supply to its farmers at subsidised prices of Naira 2700 (U.S.$15) per 50kg of compound fertiliser (NPK) and Naira 3000 for a 50kg of Urea, almost two thirds less than the free market price mentioned by the farmer quoted in Adamawa State.

Nigeria's average fertiliser use is about 5kg/hectare. For comparison, in South Africa and Egypt the figure is over 100kg.hectare, while in many developed countries it is over 200kg.hectare.


African Agriculture

Greater access to fertiliser sought for Ugandan farmers

Uganda's equatorial position and favourable climate, as well its rich volcanic soils, make it ideal for the successful growing of a large variety of crops. Fertiliser use never took hold in the way it did in neighbouring Kenya, partly because of the two countries' very different colonisation patterns. In addition, political disruptions in the late 1970s and early 1980s greatly disrupted agriculture in general, with fertiliser use said to have decreased 'to almost zero' from 8000 tonnes in the early 1970s.

According to the 'Uganda Fertilizer Strategy 2006 Draft Report,' it is estimated that between 1996 and 2000, fertiliser usage was 0.37kg fertilizer nutrients per hectare. This is compared to 4kg/ha in Mozambique, 6kg/ha in Tanzania, Malawi 16kg/ha, Kenya 31.6kg/ha, South Africa 51kg/ha, USA 105kg/ha and 578 kg/ha in The Netherlands.

Some have considered the relative pristine-ness of Ugandan soils in relation to their exposure to synthetic fertilisers to be an advantage in marketing the hub as a potential powerhouse for organic crops.

Despite the country's relatively good natural soil fertility, declining yields from intensive use over the years have spurred the government and other industry players to encourage greater fertiliser use.

Current Ugandan fertiliser use is said to be one kilogramme (kg) of nutrients per hectare per year, while the
recommended usage is 50 kg/hectare/year.eyond the reach of

All of Uganda's fertiliser is imported, with the result that the landed cost of the product in the landlocked country is beyond the reach of many farmers. Yet the country's investment climate is said to not be conducive to fertiliser manufacturers establishing a base in the country. However, in 2014 China's Guangzhou Dongsong Energy Group began building a phoshate fertiliser plant in Tororo district, eastern Uganda, said to have an initial capacity of 300, 000 tonnes per year.



African Agriculture

Zambian government to prop up ailing fertilizer producer

Making fertilizer more accessible to African farmers is a topic of perennial discussion.

Most of whatever fertilizer that reaches African farmers is imported, but a few countries have made efforts to produce their own, either by state-owned or private companies. But the fact that there is a huge demand for it does not necessarily mean fertilizer producers are able to easily mint money.

The obstacles they face are many, and vary from country to country.

What are the costs of inputs, versus what they can reasonably charge for their products? Are they allowed to charge market prices for this deeply 'political' commodity? If they are, how do their prices compare to those of imported products? Is electricity supply reliable enough to keep their plants operating at optimal, profitable capacity? Does the government (often the single biggest buyer) pay on time for product it has ordered?

And so on and so forth. Particularly for fertilizer companies in which the government has a stake, all sorts of political considerations in the way the companies are allowed to do business means they are often on the brink of insolvency. However, also because of the political nature of fertilizer and food security, many governments want to be seen to be supporting their fertilizer factories, even when they often are also the chief cause of the troubles of those companies. 

With that in mind, the Zambia Daily Mail (August 17)says the government will "recapitalize the Nitrogen Chemicals of Zambia, to the tune of Kwacha 25 billion (US$ 4.8 million) by rehabilitating the ammonium nitrate plant in a bid to create jobs."

"Minister of Agriculture Emmanuel Chenda....said government was unable to find an equity partner after attempts to privatize the fertilizer company failed. And Mr Chenda said government awarded Nyiombo Investments a tender to supply (imported) fertilizer for the Farmer Input Support Programme after a transparent bidding process."

Why did the company fall on hard times in the first place? And why were there no eager bidders for equity in the company?

In the answers to those questions and many more are the 'secrets' to why many fertilizer companies in various African countries find the going very rough, and why there is still dependence mostly on imported fertilizer even where there is the edifice of a local fertilizer industry.

African Agriculture  

Farmers in Tanzania disadvantaged by late distribution of subsidized inputs

Wherever there are subsidized farm inputs, farmers welcome them because most find that they are not able to purchase enough of the inputs for their needs at full market price.

But the high cost of subsidy schemes for governments cause many problems.

Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Tanzania are just a few examples of countries where farmers often complain that the the subsidized inputs are made available too late in the crop planting season for optimal yields.

"We have been forced to use substandard seeds instead of quality ones, since the vouchers delay to reach us. We can't afford to buy other seeds in the market," Bakari Somboja, said a farmer from Mabwelebwele village in Kilosa, Tanzania, according to a report in the East African Business Week.  

Somboja said farmers in his area need inputs such as seeds and fertilizer in January, but the subsidy vouchers arrive between February and March. Sometimes they are given 'temporary' vouchers to present, which the agro-dealers reject.

Another frequent complaint is that there are far from enough vouchers distributed for the needs of poor farmers.

 African Agriculture

Issues of concern about Malawi's farming inputs subsidy programme

Malawi’s late president, Bingu Mutharika, reportedly treated his country’s much praised farming inputs subsidy scheme “as a personalised presidential programme, kept that way by the numerous awards that were conferred on the president in recognition of the FISP's achievements.”

So writes Blessings Chinsinga, associate professor at the University of Malawi. He further explains, “It was not possible for technocrats to address concerns by development partners, however constructive, because of Mutharika's heavy and direct involvement in the programme.”

Although he was said to be very unpopular when he died a few months ago, Mutharika is widely credited for spearheading Malawi’s current maize self-sufficiency through the Farm Input Subsidy Programme. He instituted it in the face of opposition by ‘international development experts’ and the country's donors, on whom Malawi is said to depend for up to 40% of its budget. Although the donors later came on board on seeing its successful results, perhaps it is not surprising that Mutharika was subsequently sceptical about the advice/concerns raised by the foreign ‘experts’ that are always part of any aid package.

The previous opposition of the donors and their ‘experts,’ as well as Mutharika’s arrogance on the success of his programme meant that he was not much interested in listening to what they had to say. The unofficial aid rule book says that the recipient must take the advice packaged together with the money by the donor, but perhaps Mutharika’s ‘I told you so’ success gave him more leverage in this situation than would be the case in most cases.

However, Mutharika’s thumbing his nose at the donors’ concerns about certain aspects of the FISP did not mean that they were without validity.

Among them, Chinsinga says, were “…the lack of transparency in the cost of the FISP, especially in relation to overheads, and excessive interference in the award of FISP contracts. They worried that the FISP had become more or less a means for settling political debts, since preference in the award of the contracts was given to those with very close ties to the government, whether their bids were competitive or not.”

Chinsinga points out that despite the fact that the FISP is clearly not sustainable as currently structured and (donor) funded, “subsidies have become more or less an integral part of the social contract between the government and citizens. A government that discontinues the FISP risks voter backlash. In other words, maize subsidies are at the core of Malawi's politics. “

Chinsinga’s article is thoughtfully written and a very good read. It is important because of how almost all the issues he touches on in regards to subsidies and food security apply to most African countries.

African Agriculture

Uganda's declining soil fertility

Uganda is famed for its fertile volcanic soils and its generally agriculture-friendly climate. A pattern of  colonization quite different from neighboring Kenya's meant that Uganda did not significantly have large scale intensive farming and its associated significant, accelerated soil fertility loss, nor the accompanying heavy fertilizer use to compensate.

Depending on one's perspective, the overwhelming reliance on small scale and 'traditional' farming methods is part of the country's problem (relatively low yields) or it is part of Uganda's positives, because the land has remained relatively pristine and 'uncontaminated' by intensive farming and agro-chemicals. It could be a little bit of both, but to agro-ideologues who see things in black and white rather than in shades of grey/gray, you must take a stand and choose one or the other position.

Nevertheless, Uganda's natural soil richness and the relative absence of 'modern' farming has not spared the country from declining soil fertility.

Described by the New Vision newspaper as Uganda's first soil scientist, Professor Kitungulu Zaake is quoted as saying the country is experiencing an alarming loss of soil fertility, and that soil supplementation needs to be paid attention to as a matter of urgency.

According to Zaake, soil fertility declines account for a drop from an annual four million bags of coffee to three million bags. Yields of various type of banana, the country's main staple crop, have fallen from 10 tonnes a hectare to seven tonnes a hectare, according to him, with production sustained by the opening up of new cultivation areas.

Zaake says striga weed, a parasite which chokes the growth of maize and other grains and thrives in poor soils, is spreading widely, further endangering food security. He also says the high incidence of previously unknown crop diseases can also be attributed to poor soils.

What to do? 'Use more fertilizer' is one quick answer. A study quoted in the New Vision report found that Uganda's  fertilizer use averages 1.8kg per hectare a year, way below the average sub-Saharan Africa level, which at an estimated eight tonnes per hectare per year is already considered very low in global terms.

The article: Looming hunger as Uganda’s soils get barren.

African Agriculture


 

 

Zambia to subsidize inputs for 'all cash crops?'

The newly elected Zambian government of President Michael Sata plans to broaden the country's current maize inputs subsidy to other crops.

The Zambia Daily Mail attributed the policy intention to a statement to that effect by Vice President Guy Scott.

In March 2011, the agriculture minister of the previous government of President Rupiah Banda said a total of 180,000 tonnes of various subsidized fertilizers were to be distributed for the 2011/12 cropping season (October-May). In 2010 the government distributed 90,000 tonnes of urea(nitrogen) and 60,000 tonnes of compound 'D' fertilizers.

Zambia's Farmer Input Support Programme was introduced in the early 2000s. As in other countries, it has been dogged by controversy. Meant for poor farmers who cannot afford the costs of the fertilizer, hybrid seeds and pesticides, there have been accusations that well-to-do farmers who are well-connected politically have often had preferential access to the subsidized inputs. It has also been alleged that it has served as a tool of political patronage. There have also been complaints from farmers that apart from cloudy criteria to access the inputs, they are also often availed late into the cropping season, reducing their potential benefits.

While popular with farmers, questions are perennially asked about the long-term ability of poor countries to sustain inputs subsidy programmes. Neighboring Malawi has had to cut back its equally popular and successful inputs subsidy programme as a result of the withdrawal of budgetary support by Western countries over a diplomatic spat over governance issues. Given these issues of cost and sustainability, Zambia would be setting somewhat of a precedent in the region if it went ahead and provided subsidized inputs for 'all cash crops,' as The Zambia Daily Mail reports him as saying.
     
Nevertheless, the inputs subsidy programme, along with good rains, has led to several years of surpluses of Zambia and the sub-region's main staple crop, maize. Erratic rains for the current season are expected to result in significantly lowered harvests this year.


African Agriculture

‘Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa is a major assault on seed sovereignty’

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa aims to revolutionize farming in Africa by various interventions including supporting research, farmer seed and fertilizer access and in various other ways.

Based in Kenya and chaired by Ghanaian former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, the organization is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. That automatically gave it deep pockets and prestige, making the organization an important agenda setter in African agriculture. But those who are opposed to ‘green revolution’ thinking look at the organization not as a welcome help to Africa’s agricultural challenges, but instead as a new threat.

Indian activist Vandana Shiva is a strong critic of green revolution effects in her country. She is one of the most prominent voices to warn African countries against repeating what she feels are the dangers of the technological efforts that raised agricultural yields in Asia, but at a human and environmental cost that some argue is unacceptable.

Shiva and like-minded people worry that there is a vast conspiracy afoot for giant, mostly American agribusiness companies to control the world’s seed supply. They argue that this profit-driven drive puts the world’s majority poor farmers in grave risk of being beholden and indebted to these companies.     

“If farmers do not have their own seeds or access to open pollinated varieties that

they can save, improve and exchange, they have no seed sovereignty – and consequently no food sovereignty,” Shiva writes in her latest contribution on the subject. “Seed sovereignty includes the farmer's rights to save, breed and exchange seeds, to have access to diverse open source seeds which can be saved - and which are not patented, genetically modified, owned or controlled by emerging seed giants. It is based on reclaiming seeds and biodiversity as commons and public good.”

Shiva then goes on to give examples of how unsustainable farmer seed and inputs debt to seed companies have led to thousands of suicides in India. She writes about the loss of biodiversity from the introduction of GM seed, the cynicism of the major seed companies in advancing their interests and several other themes that are fairly common in anti-green revolution arguments.

Although agriculture in Africa is not the main thrust of her article on the Al Jazeera website, AGRA does get a mention as an example for Shiva of the corporate thrust to control the global food chain right from the source, the seed.

Shiva writes,”The GMO seeds Monsanto is offering are failing. This is not “improvement" of genetic resources, but degradation. This is not innovation but piracy

For example, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) - being pushed by the Gates Foundation - is a major assault on Africa's seed sovereignty.”

The extensively argued article by Vandana Shiva is The seed emergency: The threat to food and democracy.

African Agriculture

Poor rain, access to inputs and finance may slow Zimbabwe agriculture recovery in 2012

The poor rains that have affected most of southern Africa in the 2011/12 cropping season have resulted in reduced farmland put under cultivation, lowering the expected yield of maize and other key crops. Chronic poor availability of fertilizer and other inputs have contributed to the problems, as well as weak farmer access to credit.

The government’s Agricultural Extension Services (Agritex) said Zimbabwe planted

247 000 hectares of maize from November to January, down from 379 993

hectares in the same period the year before because of late rains, according to the Zimbabwe Independent newspaper in late January.

Farmers planted 130 944 hectares of sorghum and other small grains, compared with 136 131 hectares, Agritex said. Cotton planting also decreased from last season. A total of 45 000 hectares were planted compared to 107 727 hectares last season. Farmers planted soybeans on 5,079 hectares compared to 13 674 hectares, and tobacco on 39 393 hectares compared to 43 545 hectares to last season.

Zimbabwe has both a number of fertilizer manufacturing companies and a well developed hybrid seed development and marketing system. However, a variety of operational difficulties over several years, including high power costs and power cuts, have prevented them from being able to fully utilize their installed production capacity. Fertilizer exports were suspended by the government in December 2011 to try and steer all production to the local market.

The government runs a coupon-based seed and fertilizer subsidy scheme through the State-owned Grain Marketing Board, but it has been plagued by late deliveries of the inputs to farmers. In early February a number of GMB officials were arrested for corruption in the distribution of the inputs. There has also been outrage that the subsidized inputs are first snapped up by the political elite before the poor farmers for whom they are intended have access to them. In any case, the US$45 million subsidy programme, targeted to benefit 500, 000 farmers, is a small proportion of farmers’ needs.

The GMB is in charge of buying maize, the country’s main staple crop, from farmers, but takes as long as six months to pay for deliveries, which severely hampers farmers’ operations and preparations for the following season. This has caused some maize farmers to shift to the currently more lucrative tobacco, an export crop sold at auction and for which farmers are paid on delivery. 

At the start of the 2011/2012 season, in October 2011, the GMB had reportedly paid farmers a total of $27 million for delivered maize from the 2012/11 season, but owed them $40 million more.

However, the up-front costs of farming tobacco are much higher than those of maize. The per hectare costs of maize is about US$1200, while tobacco costs are between $9500 and $10000 a hectare. Particularly where agricultural finance is so hard to come by, this presents a significant barrier to entry into large scale tobacco farming.   

The government mandated maize producer price is US$285 per tonne for 2012, a slight increase on 2011’s US$275 per metric tonne. The highest tobacco auction price in 2011 was about $2.75 per kg.

The tobacco marketing season for 2012 has just began (February), with Monica Chinamasa, chairwoman of the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board saying the sector was ‘targeting 150 million kg.’ The total crop auctioned in 2011 was 132 million kg. Her estimate might not be realizable given the reduction in hectarage planted.

Finance minister Tendai Biti, in his budget presentation for 2012, said, “The financial requirements for adequate support to agriculture are large, translating to around US $2, 5 billion per annum for grain, cash crops as well as livestock production. Of this amount, grain requirements amount to US $702 million.” The total budget for agriculture in 2012 was US$227 million.

Zimbabwe’s agricultural production had been forecast to grow by 11 percent in 2012, compared to an expansion of seven percent in 2011. Key sectors in which increases are expected are tobacco, maize, cotton, soya beans and poultry. After decline in most sectors of agriculture from the year 2000 as a result of poorly planned land reform, steady improvements have been noted in several sectors since 2008.

How the actual yields will compare to earlier forecasts will only become clear towards the end of the current rain season, in April/May.

African Agriculture

Inputs subsidy schemes: does easy fertilizer access discourage good soil management?

by Chido Makunike

Malawi can justifiably be very proud of its farming inputs subsidy programme. For several years in a row, it has produced surpluses of the country’s staple crop, maize. Considering the several prior years of maize famine the country experienced, the turn around is a huge achievement.

From the beginning, there have been questions about the cost sustainability of the programme. Last year, the extent of the subsidy scheme had to be scaled back over a diplomatic dispute with and the subsequent reduction of aid by Britain, a major donor. But none of these challenges detracts from Malawi’s success at addressing a key issue.

Good rains fortuitously accompanied the first several years of the subsidy. The 2011/12 farming season is the first one since the subsidy was introduced that the rain season is expected to be below average. It will be interesting to see what new lessons will be learned from the new variable of poor rains.

However, there is already enough known over many decades for some of the adjustments that may need to be made to the subsidy programme to be highlighted.

The benefits of fertilizer are clear. Availability and cost are the key issues limiting its use in Africa. But one of the downsides of ready fertilizer availability and relatively easy affordability is that they encourage laziness with regards to soil management.

Fertilizer’s effects on plant growth are so quick and dramatic that when many farmers know they will definitely have it; there seems little point in natural soil fertility improvement measures. Yet fertilizer use should ideally go hand in hand with other soil management techniques.

Some of the reasons for this fertilizer-caused soil fertility negligence are obvious and understandable. Most small holder farming is a very hard slog for often very little return. For most farmers, it is already back breaking work before you add the additional tasks of maintaining, say, compost. On poor soils where fertilizer is not available, soil supplementation measures may add to the manual drudgery of farming, but the farmer knows s/he simply cannot avoid it if a reasonable yield is to be expected from that poor soil.

Fertilizer, with its quick, direct shot of basic nutrients to the plant, is therefore a very effective, attractive alternative to the harder work of natural soil fertility supplementation. Farmers are well aware that fertilizer cannot replace natural soil fertility. Nevertheless, when fertilizer is available, the reality of their existence makes sole reliance on it by many farmers irresistible because of its ease of application and its immediate, dramatic results.

But a season of poor rainfall like the present one dramatically decreases the usefulness of fertilizer. Fertilizer application must be soon followed by soil-soaking rain or irrigation. If not, the un-dissolved fertilizer will not only be of no use to the plant, if near physically enough to the plant, it may burn it.

Poor rainfall seasons are when the benefits of naturally rich soils are most apparent. Soil with lots of plant matter in it will have many of the basic nutrients even before or without the additional application of fertilizer. Critically, moisture retention is much higher in such soils, which can make all the difference in whether a plant survives until the next rainfall, or wilts and dies before. If and when fertilizer is applied to such naturally rich soil, it is as a fertility boost, rather than as the only means of feeding the plant. Fertilizer used in this way can be stretched out to cover a larger area without sacrificing per hectare yields.

All these well known facts are often ignored in the excitement of widely available fertilizer and the euphoria of ‘bumper harvests.’ Soil fertility caution is thrown to the wind and fertilizer is treated as if it could replace well fed soils, which it cannot.

Fertilizer subsidies are simply too expensive to continue indefinitely. Sooner or later the long term costs of neglecting basic soil fertility will catch up with a country’s agriculture. Good soil management is a process, not a one time event like applying a dose of fertilizer. Unfortunately, attention to soil fertility is usually paid in times of crisis, when compost, manure or mulch cannot be used as an emergency measure for the sudden absence of fertilizer or sufficient rain. Their use needs to be emphasized on an on-going basis, even when fertilizer is readily available.

The poor rains in Malawi and the rest of the region are likely to result in dramatically decreased maize harvests in 2012. But they may also provide another opportunity to remind farmers and governments that regardless of the success of an inputs subsidy, it is dangerous to treat fertilizer as if it could be a substitute for good soil management. Fertilizer use and good soil management must be treated as complementary to each other.

To ignore this in times of good rains, accessible fertilizer and bumper harvests is to simply postpone reckoning with the problems that build up when soil management is ignored. Those problems will become dramatically apparent in times when one or more of the elements needed for fertilizer to produce its results, such as good rain, is missing.

African Agriculture

Nitrogen fertilizer 'could prevent locust swarms'

byy Li Jiao
A surprising finding promises a cheap and environmentally friendly way of controlling locust swarms, a major plague that devastates crops around the world.

Land erosion caused by heavy livestock grazing promotes locust swarms by lowering the nitrogen content in plants that locusts feed on, according to a study published in Science today (27 January).

Conversely, the study also found that locusts do not thrive on nitrogen-rich food, as previously thought, but are in fact hampered by it.

"Nitrogen fertiliser - which plants use to make protein - may be an inexpensive, more environmentally friendly pest control solution for this species," said the lead author Arianne Cease, a researcher at Arizona State University, United States.

Most herbivores, including insects, are thought to be limited by the availability of nitrogen-rich protein in their diets.

But scientists were surprised to find that this is not the case for Oedaleus asiaticus, a dominant locust of the north Asian grasslands and a close relative of the common African pest O. senegalensis.

Field observations found that locusts were less likely to survive in fields that were fertilised with nitrogen, and their density was highest in the most heavily grazed fields - which were dominated by plants with low nitrogen content. Laboratory experiments showed that locusts preferred to eat plants with low nitrogen content.


more....SciDev.net

Nigerian government, banks to fund fertilizer, seeds supply

by Sunday William & Olayemi R. Ibrahim

The Nigerian federal ministries of finance and agriculture on 29 Nvember signed a 30 billion Naira (1 US$ = 161.71 NGN; December 8 2011) worth Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with commercial banks in the country for the supply of fertilizers and seeds to farmers in the coming 2012 farming season.

Speaking at the signing of the tripartite MoU between the ministries and the banks, Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Nweala said the objective was to grow agriculture so that Nigerians could have cheap food on their tables, provide jobs for millions of young people and also achieve food security which is becoming increasingly important in today’s world.

Okonjo-Iweala gave a breakdown of the loan indicating that N22.6 billion is earmarked for financing fertilizer, N2.7 billion for seeds procurement and the balance for agro-dealers in which each of them would be entitled to N3 million.

She added that the loan shall be made available to registered agriculture input dealers across the six geo political zones at a subsidized interest rate of 7 percent per annum with the Ministry of Finance guaranteeing 70 percent of the loan principal payment.

It is envisaged that the partnership will ensure that at least 500, 000 farmers would have access to the agriculture input and the initiative to create about 3,500 jobs and also generate 20 million metric tons of food.

The minister said the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) programme, which is private sector driven and being supported under the financing arrangement with the government guarantee covering 70 percent of the total loan (about N17 billion of the loan amount) replacing the old inefficient fertilizer system that was led by the government.

The Minister of agriculture  Akinwumi Adesina said the role of the government was to provide enabling environment for farmers and not to procure and distribute fertilizers adding that the federal government believes that agriculture is not a government development project but a business.

“Fertilizer is like other commodities in the market, if you can get coca-cola in the market you can also get fertilizer without any problem,” he said.

The chairman of bankers association of Nigeria, Aigbojie Aig-Imoukhuede said the loan will be available over the next 30 days.

Daily Trust

Fertilizer use, better farming methods can double Uganda’s coffee output: study

 The use of inorganic fertilizers and improved farming practices by small-holder farmers can significantly increase, and even double, coffee production in Uganda -the world’s eleventh largest producer of the crop. This in turn would translate into more income and better lives for the estimated one-quarter of the population economically dependent on the crop in one way or another and a much-needed boost to the country’s export revenue.

This is according to a recent study conducted by researchers at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) which found that farmers of Robusta coffee in Southern Uganda who used Urea fertilizer to address the Nitrogen deficiency in their fields, harvested twice as much coffee beans as those that did not. This applied both when the coffee was grown alone (monocropped) or mixed together with banana (intercropped), a common practice in the country and which a previous study by IITA showed increases incomes for farmers by as much as 50%.

The study also  found that the rate of return for farmers’ investment in fertilizer, using 2006 – 2007 prices, were as high as  545% for Robusta grown together with banana and 305% when grown alone. However, yield increases and profitability of applying nitrogen fertilizer were much lower for Arabica coffee in the Mount Elgon area where the yield increased by an average of 36 % and the rate of return was below 100%.  Nutrient deficiency mapping in the region confirmed that the soils lacked other essential minerals and not just nitrogen.

According to Dr Piet Van Asten, a systems agronomist with IITA Uganda, the current average yield for both Arabica and Robusta coffee at one ton per hectare per year is very low but farmers can easily double their production by using fertilizer and improving current farming practices. However, he says, to get the maximum return out of fertilizer use, it is important to target the nutrient deficiency in a particular area and the type of coffee instead of following blanket fertilizer recommendation. “Arabica and Robusta coffee have different nutrient requirements and nutrient deficiencies vary from place to place. Yet the current fertilizer recommendations for the crop are not specific to the coffee type nor region,” he says.

Godfrey Senabulya, 45, from Bukomansimbi district in Uganda, was one of farmers involved in the study who is making much more money than before from his coffee farming by using fertilizer and improved farming practices.  He started using fertilizers in 2006 after attending various trainings conducted under Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Program (APEP) funded by USAID in 2005 and 2006.

Senabulya says he is able to comfortably feed and educate his seven children with the earnings from coffee and has greatly improved his house and farm. He therefore advices farmers that good farming practices and the use of fertilizers pays. “Farmers should not be scared of using fertilizers. They should go for training to learn how and which fertilizers to use and they will see the difference,’ he says.

The low fertilizer usage was attributed to high fertilizer prices, poor supply, and differences in farmer resource endowments.  The study showed that reduction in fertilizer prices and increase in coffee prices would make fertilizer use more acceptable even in Arabica growing region.

The research was funded by USAID through the Agricultural Productivity Enhancement Program (APEP).  The study findings are also in line with a similar study led by van Asten and Lydia Wairegi, a PhD student at Makerere University which showed that moderate use of mineral fertilizers could double the production of East African highland bananas in Uganda.

New Times

Ghanaian farmers ask for fertilizer subsidy to be extended

by Laud Nartey

Farmers in Ghana have called for an extension of subsidy on fertilizer by government beyond the 2015 deadline.

In May 2007, government announced the introduction of the subsidy on fertilizer to mitigate the effects of food crisis. It was also a rapid intervention to help increase food production during the peak of the then global crisis that was adversely affecting poor countries.

The Programmes Coordinator of Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG), Victoria Adongo, explained at a stakeholder roundtable discussion with importers and distributors of fertilizer in Accra last week that there was uncertainty surrounding the life span of the program as sustained funding had become a problem.

"The small scale farmers are demanding that the fertilizer subsidy programme be made comprehensive to include funding, sustainability and as 2015 approaches, small scale farmers are jittery," she stated.

She further explained that in 2009, the PFAG did an impact assessment of the coupon or voucher system of the subsidized fertilizer distribution with the objective of assessing small scale farmers' access to the product.

A number of problems that made the access to fertilizer difficult for rural scale farmers especially women were identified.

On his part, the Director of Agric Extension Service of the Ministry of Agriculture, Justice Amoah, stated that fertilizer application rate in Ghana was one of the lowest in the world. He attributed this to the high cost of fertilizers.

"A bag of 50kg NPK sells at 40 US Dollars," he said. He recalled that in 2008, government subsidized 43,176 metric tons of fertilizer to the tune of GHc 20.654 million, in 2009, a quantity of 72,795 metric tons were subsidized, amounting to GHc 34.4 million and in 2010, a quantity of 91,244 metric tons were subsidized and that also amounted to GHc 30.002 million . Thus a total amount of GHc 85,056million was spent on fertilizer over the three year period.

He disclosed that for the 2011 all categories of crop farmers whether Small, Medium or Large scale farmers have been targeted.

Justice Amoah mentioned cost of subsidy to government, sustainability of the programme with increased demand for more subsidized fertilizers, smuggling of fertilizers to neighboring countries and delays in processing payments as some of the challenges facing the programme.

He advised that government should encourage banks to provide guarantees, and set up more distribution channels in remote areas to increase farmers' access. He also called on government to endeavor to establish a fertilizer production plant in the country to take advantage of the by-product from Ghana's crude oil production.

An importer from Ghana-Agre Input Dealers Association (GAIDA), Afia Owusu Nyantekyi, appealed that publicity on subsidy has to be intensified so that the message could get to all farmers across the country.

"Low publicity is a mojor problem facing the farmers and some importers. Some don't hear the announcement and this is a major challenge," she explained.

allafrica.com

Malawi: fuel scarcity paralyzes subsidy fertilizer distribution

by Judith Moyo

Scarcity of fuel especially diesel has led to the delay in transportation of subsidized fertilizer and maize seed to farmers.

All vehicles that are hired to transport the farm inputs use diesel which is a very rare commodity in Malawi. Many farmers in the southern region of the country and part of the central region have already planted maize using seed from other sources.

Although government has completed distribution of coupons to enable households access fertilizer and maize seed, the farmers cannot get the commodities because they are not yet delivered to their areas.

In the few areas where delivery was made, Admarc officials have turned corrupt asking people to pay extra K1000 to buy a bag of fertilizer at the subsidized price of K500. Some have since been arrested.

Principal Secretary for Agriculture Erica Maganga on Tuesday told state controlled Malawi Broadcasting Corporation that government has finished distributing coupons in all the 28 districts of the country.

Maganga also confirmed that the fuel scarcity has affected the distribution of the commodities.

“We have 1 000 Admarc markets and fuel we have not yet reached all of them because of fuel. But there are some filling stations which are allowed only to fuel vehicles which are hired to transport subsidized fertilizer,” said Maganga.

As the delays continue, rains have started coming and most households are likely to do without fertilizer and that would affect next year’s food production.

Nyasa Times

Tanzania farmers advised on human manure use

by Meddy Mulisa

A group of 20 farmers from Kagera Region, Tanzania who recently visited Kabale District, in Uganda, were highly impressed by the use of human manure. The method is said to be environmentally friendly as opposed to the use of industrial fertilizers.

The farmers went to Uganda to learn agricultural methods being adopted by Ugandan farming communities who engage in sustainable farming.

One of the farmers in Kabale district, Ms Beatrice Twayangga, said, ''By using human manure, I have been able to double the maize production from three bags to 40 bags per hectare,'' she said.

Kabale's Africa 2000 Network Co-ordinator, Mr Polly Mubangizi told the visiting Tanzanian farmers that the human manure has to be mixed with ashes, urine and leaves from certain tree species to provide an ingredient that would not attract harmful insects to attack crops.

Farmers n Kagera region use very little fertilizer on their farms. Data indicates that during the 1988/89 season, a total of 478.1 tonnes of fertilizers were distributed to villages in the region out of which only 159 tonnes were used by the farmers.

In the 1991/92 season a total of 258.05 tonnes of fertilizers were distributed to villages but only 85.2 tonnes were utilized.

Daily News

Zimbabwe distributes free inputs to vulnerable farmers

by Jonga Kandemiiri

The Zimbabwean government says it is printing more than one million vouchers to be distributed to farmers through offices of the Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services to provide access to vulnerable growers to Grain Marketing Board planting inputs.

Agritex Principal Director Joseph Gondo said the vouchers, with special security features, should be available for distribution by his office by the end of the week.

Under the US$45 million agricultural inputs subsidy scheme, each farmer considered to be vulnerable is to receive 10 kilograms of maize seed, one 50-kilogram bag of compound D and one 50 kilogram bag of ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

Agronomist Thomas Nherera said that this is a welcome move as the small farmers being targeted produce most of the country's staple maize.

VOA